Bridie Vision

It's because of our lack of creativity that no. 8 looked so good. Slater playing deep just doesn't work for us, there's nobody for him to link up with, hence why he ends up being our holding midfielder, box-to-box and playmaker whilst Hutton or Harkins stroll around mistiming tackles. Moore is better than those two in my opinion but he hasn't clicked with Slater yet so is being a bit of a passenger. As for striking options, well, the less said the better.

Good entertaining game, shame about the result, but it's only a friendly. Am worried that we'll not win any of the league Cup matches coming up though!

We've scored a goal at least, typically it's an OG, nice diving header.

Looking at Huskies other matches in Scotland I think it'll be a close tough match as they are probably on a similar level to us. Be interesting how tonight goes.

Well it's a home tie, that's nice. Guess we'll not make any progress in this competition.

Keatings is an interesting signing, on paper he looks brilliant except for the major hip injuries. If he can be nursed like Slater we could have the next John Baird, however, I fully realise he could also be the next Steven Doris. As for Matty, I'll always have a soft spot for him as he's the only player (other than Murray Mackintosh) to have come from our development side and actually have an okay career, playing for the first team on a regular basis. Does anyone know if we'll have more of our squad for Saturday than we did on Tuesday? (Stef, Flanagan, Thomson etc.)

It's unique and bespoke! That's all I'll say about it.

A wee clip on the Twitters doing the rounds, sums up yesterday pretty well Of course the club will probably try and get this Tweet blocked.

Harkins is on for Slater, taken the armband too.

Forfar playing as good as our new home kit. Abysmal!

Agreed, looked at Pendle's website and that is their new kit. So ours will be Sky with the white stripes.

Do you think we're going to sign anyone else, or dip into the loan market? We've had a very quiet transfer window which makes me think Irvine is content with his squad. Also, are we releasing a new kit or just keeping the same 3 kits as last season?

I share pretty much everyone's sentiments here. Nditi, excellent! Brindley is fine but would've rather taken Strachan, however, as we discussed months ago, Strachan and Irvine had to have fallen out because he didn't deserve to be dropped. Going for the title is brave but we should be fighting for it the whole season. Unlike the last 3 years there isn't a moneybags team in L2 to buy the title through massive wages. Who do you think is favourite for the title?

Ah yes of course, should've thought of that.

Agreed, why choose Dunfermline! Our "partnership" with Dens last season was fine, also Dundee have a better youth system than Dunfermline and are much closer to us.

Scott Robertson has left the club to take up a more senior full-time role at Dens Park. Be interesting to see if Gary recruits another assistant manager or if he doesn't add to his backroom staff.

From different fans opinions Armour & Flanagan seem like decent signings but not masterstrokes. Armour could be an injury-prone Shep, and Flanagan seems like a Tapping type player - there is a good player in him but very rarely do we see it - however, if he's a direct winger that could be useful for our style of counter-attacking play. Hopefully more signing news in the near future as Gary Irvine and Yussef Hussain are the only fullbacks at the club and we need someone to play alongside Slater that isn't Hutton or Harkins - Moore might be the best option there for now (although I'm sure Irvine would prefer Harkins in the other CM spot) As for Jamie Ness, I believe he was only given a deal until this summer and it's highly unlikely he's been offered another contract.

Meechs will certainly be missed, seems like a really genuine guy. Assuming he'll cruise to the WoS title with Darvel next season as they do a Kelty & Cove and likely steam roll to L1. It is worrying that there's not even been a whisper of a rumour who we might be after. At this rate next season we'll have Gary Irvine at RB and Gary Harkins at CM!

The Huskies appear to be a very good college side with multiple college league and Cup titles, however what level of quality they and their fellow colleges are like we'll find out in July. It's certainly more interesting than say Formartine United or another Highland League team like we usually have a friendly against. We certainly have a chance against Dunfermline and Alloa, although to win all 3 friendlies will be a tough ask I reckon.

Jim Weir is back in work. He's announced as Elgin's Assistant Manager. It's almost poetic, Gavin was Jim's assistant until Jim came to us. Gavin was given the head job and now Jim is his assistant! Forfar news is so slow that I've now resorted to bringing Elgin news to us. Irvine must have a lot of faith in this squad - or nobody wants to join because Forfar is too far away (as discussed on this thread the last few days).

It used to be Monday at St Andrew's University and Thursdays at Station Park, not sure if that's still the case? But even St Andrew's is still a long journey for a Glasgow based player (for example).

I can't see Gary letting Meechs go on the cheap, not unless Ross has a long chat with him. Meechan is a good player, he's never going to be a star man but he will always do his job and do it well 90% of the time. Would be sad to see him leave but for a more reasonable work/life/football balance it's understandable. Slight tangent: That's the issue with Angus (I know we're not as bad as Elgine for example) not many good footballers live in the Tayside area, so most signings are players who live in Glasgow/Edinburgh or within the M8/M80 region and therefore travelling almost 2 hours there and back twice a week after work, it's a heck of a commitment, and can often be a reason for turning down an Angus team.

After a quick Google - so probably not 100% accurate, because I have nothing better to do, 5G and 6G artificial pitches are variations of 4G pitches something about the difference in rubber infill. So I guess you're both kind of right, it's slightly different but it is also partly marketing bumph. Whatever the case Forfar will have a nice new pitch, but will it help us win the league, I doubt it'll make any difference.

Pitch: It is an upgrade (5G or 6G astro) supposedly the same quality as the Nou Camp training pitches. Rumours: Nope, not heard anything. Harkins: He'll be our star player next season I think him and Irvine will both register as players again. League Cup: If we beat Stranraer and manage to draw one of the other games will be as good as it gets I reckon.

We've got Dundee again! It feels like we've had them in the Betfred/Premier Sports Cup for the last 5 years. Also, I noticed it's no longer split with a north & south section, so a midweek trip to Stranraer is possible.